Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A team from the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ing T&T in Ethiopia at the Sec­ond Africa-Cari­com Sum­mit, whose theme fo­cus­es on part­ner­ships in pur­suit of repa­ra­tions for peo­ple of African de­scent.

Heads of State and Gov­ern­ments of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty, the Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al, and oth­er re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives have joined African coun­ter­parts in Ad­dis Aba­ba, Ethiopia, for the sum­mit, which start­ed yes­ter­day.

Cari­com’s Sec­re­tari­at said the sum­mit’s theme is “Transcon­ti­nen­tal Part­ner­ship in Pur­suit of Repara­to­ry Jus­tice for Africans and Peo­ple of African De­scent through Repa­ra­tions.” The sum­mit aligns with the prin­ci­ples of the AU-Cari­com Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MoU) on strength­en­ing en­gage­ment and fos­ter­ing link­ages be­tween Cari­com and Africa.

Guardian Me­dia was told a two-mem­ber team from the min­istry - the deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary and di­rec­tor of Cari­com Af­fairs - are rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the sum­mit.

On Sat­ur­day, the African Union Com­mis­sion host­ed a high-lev­el side event fo­cus­ing on repa­ra­tions, mem­o­ry and sov­er­eign­ty.

Health min­is­ters from the African and Caribbean al­so held a joint meet­ing host­ed by Ethiopia’s Health Min­istry, the African Union Com­mis­sion, Cari­com, and HeD­PAC on Sat­ur­day.

The sum­mit is be­ing at­tend­ed by the pres­i­dents of the World Bank and In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund, and heads of the African and Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Banks, as well as the Afrex­im­bank.

Caribbean na­tion­als in Ethiopia are al­so host­ing a di­as­po­ra event fo­cused on strength­en­ing Caribbean-Africa re­la­tions

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, speak­ing dur­ing African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions in Au­gust, had promised to spear­head moves to seek repa­ra­tions for the de­scen­dants of en­slaved Africans who suf­fered dur­ing the slave trade. She promised plans to re-em­pow­er the Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee on Repa­ra­tions and sup­port for Cari­com’s ef­forts to pur­sue debt re­lief, de­vel­op­men­tal fi­nanc­ing and bind­ing in­sti­tu­tion­al re­forms at the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in Oc­to­ber.